Jan. 21
TEXAS----new execution date
Perry Williams has been given an execution date for July 14; it should be
considered serious.
*********************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----14
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----532
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533
16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534
17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535
18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536
19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537
20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538
21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539
22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540
23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
DELAWARE:
Death penalty repeal bill headed to House vote
A death penalty repeal bill that had been languishing in a House committee is
headed to a vote by the full House next week after the committee chairman
agreed to release it.
Judiciary Committee members voted 6-to-5 last May not to send the bill to the
full House after it cleared the Senate on an 11-to-9 vote.
But committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, who opposes repeal, said
Thursday that he had signed it out of committee with an "unfavorable"
endorsement, allowing the bill to move forward.
Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat and chief House sponsor of the legislation,
said he believes it has enough support to pass the House.
Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the measure if it reaches
his desk.
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA:
Va. death penalty murder trial of Joaquin Rams is postponed
The capital murder trial of Joaquin S. Rams, accused of drowning his
15-month-old son in 2012 to collect more than $540,000 in insurance proceeds,
has been postponed from its Feb. 1 start date in Prince William County Circuit
Court.
Rams, 43, has been in the Prince William jail without bond for 3 years in
connection with the October 2012 death of his son Prince McLeod Rams. But on
Wednesday, his lawyers asked for a continuance, and Prince William Circuit
Court Judge Craig D. Johnston granted it. No new trial date was set, pending a
hearing next week.
Defense attorney Daniel Morissette said the court-appointed defense team was
concerned about the availability of some out-of-state witnesses and whether
they would be present in Manassas when the defense presents its case. Rams has
maintained he is innocent in his son's death.
(source: Washington Post)
FLORIDA----female to face death penalty
Prosecutors seek death for woman charged with killing son
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a Florida woman accused of
killing her 3-year-old son and stuffing him into a suitcase.
State Attorney spokesman David Angier says Bay County prosecutors filed a
notice to seek the death penalty Thursday against 27-year-old Egypt Moneeck
Robinson. A grand jury indicted her Wednesday on a 1st-degree murder charge.
The sheriff's office reports that Robinson's boyfriend initially went to the
1st department last month to report the child's death. Firefighters contacted
deputies, who went to Robinson's home near Panama City. Deputies found the
suitcase containing the child's body floating in water behind the home.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen has said investigators are looking at "ritualistic
sacrifice" as a possible motive.
(source: Associated Press)
ALABAMA----execution
Christopher Brooks executed for 1992 rape and murder
Christopher Brooks, convicted of the 1992 rape, murder and robbery of Jo Deann
Campbell, was put to death Thursday night in the first execution carried out in
Alabama in almost 2 1/2 years.
2 media witnesses said Brooks was declared dead at 6:38 p.m. after being
administered a 3-drug injection.
Investigators found Campbell on Dec. 31, 1992, partially clothed and beaten
with a weight in her apartment in Homewood. Police found a bloody fingerprint
belonging to Brooks at the scene, and later found Brooks with Campbell's car
keys and credit card. A jury convicted Brooks, 43, in 1993 of the crime, a
conviction upheld in the state's appellate courts. Brooks met Campbell while
working as a camp counselor.
Alabama last executed an inmate on July 25, 2013. Executions came to a halt due
to a shortage of drugs used in the execution, particularly the sedatives meant
to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the injection of the fatal
chemicals. Legal challenges to lethal injection also slowed the execution
process.
Alabama switched the sedative from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital after
Hospira, the maker of sodium thiopental, discontinued its manufacture in the
United States in 2011. The state acknowledged in early 2014 it had run out of
pentobarbital. But in a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court in September, the
Alabama Attorney General's office said it had secured midazolam hydrochloride
as a sedative.
Florida has used midazolam in its executions since 2013, without reported
incident. But the drug was present in executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona
in 2014, where inmates took a lengthy time to die. In 2 cases, reporters said
inmates appeared to be gasping or choking through the process.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions in a 5-4
decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said three Oklahoma
inmates challenging its use had failed to prove it violated the U.S.
Constitution's prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The court
also ruled that the condemned had to suggest a more humane method of execution
available to officials.
After administration of the sedative, the state protocol calls for the
injection of rocuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles. The inmate would
next receive potassium chloride, to stop the heart. The drugs are administered
from a room outside the execution chamber. Under state law, Holman warden
Carter Davenport administers the lethal injection.,P. Brooks was moved to a
holding cell on Tuesday in advance of the execution. He was given a breakfast
at 6:10 a.m., but did not eat it. Brooks saw friends and attorneys until 4:15
p.m. Thursday, according to Corrections officials.
There are 186 inmates on Alabama's death row. 5 have challenged the use of
midazolam, saying it would not render them unconscious in time to avoid the
pain from the other 2 drugs, which would be a violation of the Eighth
Amendment's protections against "cruel and unusual punishment." The inmates
also questioned whether Corrections officials consistently administer a
consciousness test before administering the lethal drugs. Brooks filed a motion
to join the case in November, and later to stay his execution.
"Midazolam will not anesthetize Brooks, and regardless of the dose, will not
eliminate the risk that a condemned inmate will experience pain from the
paralytic or potassium chloride," his brief said.
A district court allowed Brooks to join the lawsuit, known as the "Midazolam
Litigation," but refused to grant a stay. A federal appeals court Tuesday
refused to intervene, upholding the district judge's ruling that Brooks had not
offered an alternative means of execution available to the Alabama Department
of Corrections. The court also upheld the district court???s ruling that Brooks
had run out of time to intervene in the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Brooks' requests for a stay of the execution
Thursday evening. The majority did not explain its reasons. Justice Stephen
Breyer wrote a brief dissent, saying the methods by which Brooks was sentenced
resembled Florida's capital sentences, which the high court voted to strike
down earlier this month in a case titled Hurst v. Florida.
"The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which
used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to
reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment,"
Breyer wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, wrote a
separate concurrence in the denial. Sotomayor wrote that "procedural obstacles"
prevented the court from granting the stay, but added that the majority's
decision to deny the ruling was based on two cases that Hurst overturned.
A federal court last year scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the remaining
inmates' challenge to the state's death penalty procedures for April.
The long pause between executions in Alabama was unusual, but not
unprecedented. The state resumed executions in 1983, but did not schedule any
for almost 3 years after, following the gruesome death of John Evans in the
electric chair on April 22, 1983. There was a 2 1/2 year gap in executions in
the state between 1992 and 1995.
Brooks' execution is the 7th to take place under Gov. Robert Bentley's
administration.
Brooks becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabam
and the 57th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.
Brooks becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1425th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
There is 1 more execution later this month, set for Jan. 27 in Texas.
(sources: Monntgommery Advertiser & Rick Halperin)
*************************
Does AL execution violate prisoner's 8th amendment right?
A man arrested in Columbus, GA for the 1992 rape and murder of 23-year-old Jo
Deann Campbell is set to be executed in Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Christopher Eugene Brooks will be the first person executed in the state since
July 2013, but it is the method in which he will be executed that is causing
the most controversy.
A new lethal drug combination will be used in Brooks' execution similar to the
one used in Oklahoma for Clayton Lockett's 2014 execution that took 43 minutes.
Many call into question if the new combination violates inmate's 8th Amendment
right.
"Especially when you had on record that there was a botch execution and then
you have a drug that is untested that puts the question out there," says Dr.
Fredrick Gordon, chair of CSU's Political Science Department.
Gordon says he is neither for or against the death penalty but teaches his
students how to analyze both sides of the issue.
"A lot of death row inmates will try to look at every procedure to try to stay,
or avoid or delay the death penalty. Yet at the same time we have to recognize
there is a victim in the situation," says Gordon.
Brooks was not granted clemency and on Tuesday his appeal to the Supreme Court
was also denied.
"The decision had already been made. It had been made by him when he committed
the crime and it had been made by the courts with all of the reviews," said
Governor Robert Bentley.
Campbell was brutally beaten with a dumbbell and raped before she was murdered
in 1992. Her sister Corrine says although she understands the court system, she
has waited more than 2 decades for justice.
"The justice system is set up the way that it is and he has a right to do so
you know again my focus is definitely on my sister at this point and not him,"
Corrine said.
For some the death penalty is retribution, for others it is a violation of
their religious beliefs, but Gordon says regardless of where you stand you
can't ignore the statistics.
"Northern states have the death penalty banned, so it's not an option and
people commit some very heinous crimes similar to this Alabama case, they don't
get the death penalty they get life in prison," says Gordon.
According to Deathpenaltyinfo.org when it comes to death row inmates, Alabama
is the fourth highest state in the U.S. with 195 people on death row and
Georgia is ninth with 95 people on death row.
Out of more than 2,000 executions since 1976, over 1,100 of them happened in
Southern states.
(source: WTVM news)
MISSISSIPPI:
New appeal in death penalty case amid claim about bailiff
A Mississippi death row inmate convicted of killing his roommate can file more
appeals because white jurors might have been improperly influenced by trial
court bailiffs expressing opinions to them about black jurors not favoring the
death penalty, the state Supreme Court ruled in a split decision Thursday.
The majority of the court said statements by bailiffs to jurors might have
violated Bobby Batiste's constitutional right to an impartial jury.
Batiste, a former Mississippi State University student from Preston, was
convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 in Oktibbeha County in the 2008
slaying of Andreas Galanis of Biloxi.
Prosecutors said Galanis died from a blow to the head after he and Batiste
fought at their off-campus apartment in Starkville when Galanis discovered
money missing from his checking account. Batiste told police that Galanis
attacked him first, according to court records.
The Mississippi Supreme Court in 2013 upheld Batiste's conviction and sentence,
and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 said it would not hear Batiste's appeal for
a new trial.
The state Supreme Court said Thursday that after those appeals were rejected,
juror Denise Cranford filed a sworn statement saying bailiffs were friendly and
"explained the law" to jurors during the trial. Cranford wrote that she and
some other jurors initially were concerned about the jury being all-white, but
a bailiff said black and white people view the death penalty differently.
"The bailiff said that black people will not consider the death penalty. After
that explanation I was no longer concerned," Cranford said in her statement,
according to Supreme Court records.
Batiste, now 36, is black.
During Batiste's earlier appeals, his attorneys had no reason to know jurors
might have been influenced by bailiffs, Justice James W. Kitchens wrote in the
order Thursday.
"While such an explanation may have alleviated the concerns of jurors regarding
the absence of African Americans on Batiste's jury, we cannot say that such
remarks to jurors, if made, did not impact Batiste's fundamental constitutional
right to a fair trial by an impartial jury," Kitchens wrote. "This case seems
especially egregious in light of the heightened standard which we are bound to
apply in cases which involve the death penalty."
Justice Randy Pierce wrote in a dissent: "There is no indication that the
bailiff expressed personal beliefs relating to Batiste's conviction or
sentence, or that the comments influenced the jury's decision-making process."
Batiste's attorneys have 60 days to ask the Oktibbeha County circuit court to
file a petition for post-conviction relief in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.
In such a petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence, or a possible
constitutional issue, that could persuade a court to order a new trial.
(source: sunherald.com)
MISSOURI:
Judge rules mistrial in murder case; too few jurors neutral on death penalty
A judge declared a mistrial last week in a quadruple-murder case because not
enough jurors could be found with neutral views of the death penalty.
The court was to hear the case of a Doniphan, Missouri, man charged in
connection in the 2010 deaths of two elderly couples whose bodies were found in
their burned homes.
Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett issued his ruling after it was
determined not enough jurors remained after questioning by the state and
defense attorneys to select a jury of 12 and alternates for the trial of Keith
A. Boyles.
Boyles, 23, was to stand trial on 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and 4 counts of
armed criminal action. The state was seeking the death penalty.
"We could not get enough jurors," said a court official. "We had to death
qualify them, meaning a juror had to be able to consider each punishment --
death vs. life -- equally.
"Too many said they could only consider 1 punishment. ... We started with 140.
We needed to have 38 say they could consider both punishments so that each side
could then make their strikes."
Thursday was when "we couldn't get to 38," which led to the mistrial, the court
official said.
That was the day the jury-selection process began in Ste. Genevieve County. If
jurors had been chosen, they would have been brought to Butler County for
Boyles' trial.
Because the state sought the death penalty, the jurors would have been
sequestered for the duration of the trial.
Boyles now will appear Feb. 23 before Pritchett to have his case reset for
trial.
Boyles is accused of killing Gladys Irene Piatt, 80, and Loyd Eugene Piatt, 77,
as well as Edgar Atkinson, 81, and Bonnie Chase, 69.
The Piatts were found dead inside their burned rural Doniphan home June 23,
2010. Authorities initially thought the couple had died of smoke inhalation.
The bodies of Atkinson and Chase were found in their burning home in Current
View, Missouri, on July 10, 2010. An autopsy determined Atkinson died of
gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso. A cause of death for Chase was not
known.
After the deaths of Atkinson and Chase, the investigation into the Piatts'
deaths was reopened, and their bodies were exhumed for autopsies. Both
reportedly had been shot in the chest.
(source: Southeast Missourian)
CALIFORNIA:
Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty For OC White Supremacist
Despite defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct, the California Supreme
Court today affirmed the conviction and death penalty punishment for Billy Joe
Johnson, a now legendarily wild Orange County white supremacist and killer.
A 2009 jury convicted Johnson - a member of the Nazi-loving, criminal street
gang Public Enemy Number One Death Squad (PEN1) - for the 2002, ambush, handgun
murder of Anaheim's Scott Miller, a fellow hoodlum, who broke underworld rules
by giving an on-camera interview to a Los Angeles television news station.
Johnson, a product of Costa Mesa and methamphetamine addiction, is known also
to have killed at least two other individuals - Clyde Nordeen (pick axe) and
Cory Lamons (claw hammer) - in savage, sneak-attach fashion.
During his sensational trial, a gang of sheriff's deputies escorted a
heavily-shackled Johnson into the courtroom reminiscent of precautions taken
for Hannibel Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. A young, Asian female juror had
the misfortune of being seated closest to the killer, who visibly suggested he
hadn't been in the company of the opposite sex in eons. Through the prominent
gap in his mouth where you'd usually see front teeth, a wide-eyed Johnson
smiled at the woman before darting his tongue in and out of his mouth.
Yes, Johnson is a character whose been clinically declared a "psychopath,"
which is why it wasn't shocking that he literally begged the jury to give him
death.
Sure, insane ideas routinely swirl inside his skull, but the punishment request
was soberly practical: This man, who'd spent more than 25 of his then-46 years
on the planet locked up, argued life in prison without the possibility for
parole inside Pelican Bay State Prison would be a far more painful existence
than a trip to San Quentin State Prison's death row, where inmates enjoy more
privileges.
Johnson's appellate lawyer told the Supreme Court that Ebrahim Baytieh, the
homicide prosecutor in the case, committed misconduct in his closing argument
by individually addressing jurors and posing a question about the defendant's
lifelong crime spree: "Are you indignant yet?"
The court determined that the defense forfeited the argument by failing to
object to the tactic during the trial.
The judges did, however, split on whether Superior Court Judge William Froeberg
improperly allowed Lamons' mother to testify during the penalty phase for the
Miller killing. Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, Goodwin H. Lui and Leondra
R. Kruger opined that the testimony was "irrelevant" to the last murder and its
inclusion, as authorized by the court's majority opinion, represents an unwise
expansion of prosecutorial moves not permitted in other jurisdictions. But the
minority called the miscue "harmless" to affirm the punishment.
Right about now, Johnson is receiving a message of his triumph. He'll likely
snort and, with that trademark hillbilly lisp, joyous utter profanity before
his tongue dances outside of his mouth. The 52-year-old thug gets to remain
where he wants: With about 60 other Orange County killers ahead of him on the
state's execution list.
(source: Orange County Weekly)
USA:
Still fighting the death penalty, Sr. Prejean gets Pope's blessing
2decades after her anti-death penalty work was transformed into the
Oscar-winning movie Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen Prejean's campaign continues
with the backing of Pope Francis.
Prejean met with the Pope on Jan. 21 to deliver a thank-you letter from Richard
Glossip, whose execution in the United States was halted in September after
intervention from the pontiff.
But her celebratory meeting with the pontiff came just hours after another
death row inmate, Richard Masterson, was put to death in Texas.
"I said, 'They killed him.' And he (Francis) lowered his eyes and said, 'I
pray, I pray.' He really feels for people on death row," Prejean said.
Masterson was convicted for killing Darin Honeycutt in 2001, although the
defense team argued that the victim died of a heart attack during consensual
sexual relations.
The Pope had been following the case closely, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn said
on Monday.
Francis voiced his opposition to capital punishment while addressing Congress
during his U.S. visit in September.
"Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for
the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also
offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary
punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of
rehabilitation," Francis told lawmakers.
Prejean remains hopeful in the case of Glossip, convicted of hiring a man to
kill a motel owner. His execution was indefinitely postponed after it was
discovered that the wrong drug had been presented for the lethal injection.
The execution was stayed by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who received a letter
from the Vatican's top U.S. diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, urging her
to save Glossip's life on behalf of the Pope.
"I sensed his innocence from the beginning. I'm with the 7th person on death
row; 3 of the 7 have been innocent - that's how broken the thing (system) is."
More than 150 people have been released from death row since 1973, following
evidence of their innocence, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
Executions are disproportionately high in southern states and people are more
likely to be sentenced to death if their victim is white.
Campaigning equally for those who are guilty and innocent, Prejean argued that
those on death row feel deep remorse and should not be executed for one act.
Discussing a particular case, she said a man asked for forgiveness and admitted
to being so high on drugs he had no memory of the crime.
The nun's fight against capital punishment began in the 1980s, when she became
a spiritual adviser to Patrick Sonnier, who was put to death in Louisiana.
Prejean presented the Pope with a Spanish copy of the book based on her
experiences, Dead Man Walking, which was turned into a film for which Susan
Sarandon won an Oscar for her role as Prejean.
Prejean said she felt compelled to act after witnessing Sonnier's execution and
realized the U.S. public could not see the reality of the death chamber.
"I came out and I vomited. I'd never watched a human being be killed, that I
knew, and I remember thinking it was very clear: People are never going to get
close to this."
Before discussing capital punishment it is important to talk to people about
the crime scene itself, she said.
"If you don't go to that place and let them know you feel the outrage too,
they'll never be able to come over with you finally to the place where they can
have compassion for the person (convicted)."
Prejean said Francis' influence and support are never far away.
"The Pope's like a little lighthouse, and he keeps sending out that beam - this
is what it's about."
(source: catholicregister.org)
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